Training at Home

[Maya Flores]

So, I'm in between jobs right now and I had to take this month off from my muay thai gym. I really want to practice at home somehow. 

I have a reflex bag and a jump rope. I do have one Thai pad (I ordered thinking there were two in the package, nope!) and an everlast kicking shield that I tie to the tree in my front yard. 

I started doing the trick on Sylvie's youtube channel where you practice your kick against a wall; I thought maybe in my time off I could work on technique. I also use the reflex bag and I kick the shield while it's tied to a tree. I used to go to the park with my muay thai friend to hit the pads but the bystanders would often come up and comment and it got kind of embarrassing for us. So, that's out for now. Any advice? I don't have a regular gym membership. I go back to muay thai in march and until then I'm on my own. 

[bbf3]

It's great that you want to keep up your practice outside of the gym.

Working technique on the thai pad is a good idea. You could tie it at different heights too for leg kicks, head kicks, and sweeps.

For a convenient way to get your fitness in, you could do tabata. Don't need any big spaces and only takes 4 minutes in total (20 seconds all out - 10 seconds rest, repeat 8 times). For example, 1st set running on the spot as hard as you can - rest - 2nd set jab crosses as fast as you can - rest - 3rd set burpees - rest - 4th set alternating knees - rest - 5th set repeat the 1st set...etc 

If you want to work sparring but don't have a partner, you could try to visualise when shadowboxing.

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

So, I'm in between jobs right now and I had to take this month off from my muay thai gym. I really want to practice at home somehow. 

I have a reflex bag and a jump rope. I do have one Thai pad (I ordered thinking there were two in the package, nope!) and an everlast kicking shield that I tie to the tree in my front yard. 

I started doing the trick on Sylvie's youtube channel where you practice your kick against a wall; I thought maybe in my time off I could work on technique. I also use the reflex bag and I kick the shield while it's tied to a tree. I used to go to the park with my muay thai friend to hit the pads but the bystanders would often come up and comment and it got kind of embarrassing for us. So, that's out for now. Any advice? I don't have a regular gym membership. I go back to muay thai in march and until then I'm on my own. 

I trained at home for a long time. It can be done with great fun and success! Reflex bags are really good for timing, less awesome for combinations... hence "reflex". So work on the timing of your combos more than trying to pattern out and choreograph elaborate combos. You can tie your single Thai pad to a pillar, a tree, a sign post (or something more private than the public street) and work low kicks, put it up higher for punches and kicks, teeps, etc. Or you can punch the wall, just like you work the kick on the wall. It would be great to do sets on the wall and then do a burst on the jump rope, since using a wall is going to feel far more static than hitting a bag or doing padwork might. If you can find an old tire, shadowboxing with one foot in the tire is a great drill as well.

There's not much you can do in terms of having anyone hit you back, so you just have to imagine it, like bbf3 recommended with visualization. If you're in the privacy of your own home, really let your imagination go wild. Picture an opponent or someone holding pads for you and block all that out. But go ahead and imagine winning a stadium belt, too. I wish I'd imagined stuff like that when I was safe in my own house :) It makes it more fun.

[bakpao]

Shadow boxing in the mirror, if you know you're supposed to do the technique, even if you're doing it incorrectly then this is really helpful because you can basically make adjustments to yourself at your own pace.

A trainer I had said the reason one of his fighters was such a successful fighter in a short period of time was because he was a perfectionist, he would shadow box in the mirror tweaking something the trainer had told him until it was correct. You don't have to go that extreme over it, but I really think shadow boxing in the mirror helps technique, its similar to when you watch a video of yourself training and you notice everything you did wrong.

I don't really have any other suggestions, as I can't motivate myself enough to train at home I really need someone there. 

If you find any cool ideas you use then please share, might be useful to others who want to train at home.

 

Actually, to add onto this, I'm not sure if this is any help but I saw a pretty hardcore homemade gym in Myanmar and maybe you can steal some of the things, or maybe not, still a good watch.

[Maya Flores]

So...update. I have been doing teeps to the side of the house instead of the tree because there's more space to hit (versus the width of the tree trunk) and because bark doesn't go flying everywhere. I also do this so I can practice hard without breaking something.

 

I also have put the kicking shield on the tree (tied to it with a handwrap), and "shadow clinched"--is that a thing? I would grasp the hand wrap holding the kicking shield and pretend like it was the "neck" of the opponent. I kind of try yanking the tree to the left or right while throwing knees at the kicking shield and resettling my position. 

 

Any other ideas? If I have any, I'll reply again. :)

[bakpao]

So...update. I have been doing teeps to the side of the house instead of the tree because there's more space to hit (versus the width of the tree trunk) and because bark doesn't go flying everywhere. I also do this so I can practice hard without breaking something.

 

I also have put the kicking shield on the tree (tied to it with a handwrap), and "shadow clinched"--is that a thing? I would grasp the hand wrap holding the kicking shield and pretend like it was the "neck" of the opponent. I kind of try yanking the tree to the left or right while throwing knees at the kicking shield and resettling my position. 

 

Any other ideas? If I have any, I'll reply again. :)

 

Put a mattress up against a wall, good for teeps, knees and body punches. POW 

[Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu]

So...update. I have been doing teeps to the side of the house instead of the tree because there's more space to hit (versus the width of the tree trunk) and because bark doesn't go flying everywhere. I also do this so I can practice hard without breaking something.

 

I also have put the kicking shield on the tree (tied to it with a handwrap), and "shadow clinched"--is that a thing? I would grasp the hand wrap holding the kicking shield and pretend like it was the "neck" of the opponent. I kind of try yanking the tree to the left or right while throwing knees at the kicking shield and resettling my position. 

 

Any other ideas? If I have any, I'll reply again. :)

You can throw elbows on the same pad you're using for the "shadow clinch." (That is absolutely a thing.)

Do you have any old tires?

[Maya Flores]

No, I don't have old tires...but I do have great news! I just paid for a new month of muay thai and I'll be going back to the gym tonight to get back into shape...I have to admit I haven't been exercising for two or three hours straight on my own time, so I am eager to push myself again.

Thanks to everyone for the awesome advice, I now have this idea to turn my backyard into a mini gymnasium with all your ideas, lol!!

[Maya Flores]

Back again at home! I'm looking around for a tire. I have to go get my kicking shield back from my friend. I invited my friend to come over for "sparring parties." She was open to the idea! I just have to convince my family to let me use the backyard for a sparring ring, or just do it when nobody is home.

 

Backyard Muay Thai will be my thing for the rest of the June, maybe even July!

I liked the idea on here of holding pads with other students at home. I have one friend on board, maybe there's someone else at the gym that wouldn't mind coming over for a cup of tea and some sparring/pad holding. Still, the discipline I have alone isn't as great as with a formal class, but I have to practice! Thanks again for the great ideas, and I'll let you know how my little at-home ring comes along!